Susan Dunn

Hi Susan:
I have been out of the workforce for the last two years recovering from an accident, and my question for you is how will this be viewed by employers.

Al Siebert, Ph.D., who studied resilient seniors, discovered that they had “a childlike” curiosity, and a lifelong love of learning. People who die in their 5th and 6th decade had this life trajectory: school, then work, then leisure. Resilient seniors had combined all three throughout their lifetime.

Resilience is one of the most important emotional intelligence competencies you can have in today’s fast-changing world. It means being able to bounce back after setbacks, failures, and losses. It means not giving up, and continuing to face the future with optimism and courage. You can bolster your resilience by understanding what makes people resilient and then working with a coach to improve your skills in these areas.

First of all what IS a “service mark?” Well, a trademark applies to goods or products (such as a car or a washing machine) while a service mark refers to services (like coaching, transportation and storage, or legal work).

In 1997, my boss (ex-military) was telling me what he had to offer me-a 401k and he was nailing down disability insurance. I was not impressed, as he micro-managed me, harassed me in public from time-to-time, and continued with his unspoken but blatantly obvious policy of hiring ex-military men in recovery.

Around 10% of us are introverts (though even Jung proposed it was the rare person who was 100% introverted 100% of the time), but nevertheless the world is more neatly arranged for the extravert. Introverts can be excellent salespeople and also presenters (as can extraverts), but they do it differently.

Dear Susan: My dilemma – I work many long hours/long days and am presently driving 130 miles RT to work. My Boss requires that I am at work by 0800MT in order to appease my staff (they do not know/nor care that I work 12-14 hours/day). I am used to flex-time and am trying desperately to adapt. Due to traffic, etc., there have been times I have been late but always call. My Boss is concerned about what my employees think or believe about my occasional tardiness.

Here are some tips if you’re planning a multicultural coaching practice.

1. Many wars have been fought over cultural issues; it’s a highly-charged subject. However, culture is learned, which means it can be changed. I could convert to Judaism tomorrow (culture), but there’s no way I’ll become Asian (genetic).

“How did you know what she meant?” a client asked me the other day, as we processed a joint conversation we’d had with someone from Venezuela. “What did he mean when he said.”

“On the continent,” says Lorna Ramsay, Director of
the TOP-SET Investigation System, referring to
Europe, there’s corporate manslaughter. The CEO
can be put in jail if people are injured or killed
on-the-job. This concentrates the mind of the CEO
wonderfully,” she added.

Coaching is a relationship field. Many of us offer unlimited email along with our coaching. Here are some ways you can make your emails professional yet engaging.

Accident Investigation is responsible, effective and helps the bottom line.

Dear EQ Coach:
My administrative assistant is quite young (22) and often displays her emotions in an inappropriate manner when things aren’t going well at home or with her family. Though I think I treat her very compassionately, and grant her a lot of flexibility, there are times that her sour, combative moods become unbearable-especially when at these times she also often arrives late to work and doesn’t perform her tasks with care or accuracy and does not provide me the assistance I need in a timely manner. How can I tell my assistant that her behavior and attitude are unprofessional and not acceptable without making things worse?

Multiculturalism is a reality in the US and for those of us who do business globally. The US has more legal immigrants yearly than all the other countries in the world combined. Also there are vast cultural differences among “native” Americans living in the US for several generations, as you know if you’ve done business with a New Yorker (better be quick!) or bi’ness with a Texan (better stand at a 90% angle to your male companion).

A major problem for employers today is getting the best employees and then keeping them. How do you do this? By understanding what it is employees really want. Being able to sense what others feel and want is empathy, an emotional intelligence competency.

From the US Hostile Workplace Survey, 2000.

About mobbing, bullying and harassment, Jim Landgraf, president of Education Testing Service said: “We don’t see $8 billion worth of antidepressants in this country for nothing. The corporate culture is so accepting of these kinds of aggressive actions, it’s not going to go away.”

WHO ARE THE VICTIMS? Karl Aquino, Ph.D., associate professor of management at U. of Delaware thinks mobbing, bullying and harassment are on the rise because of the increasing number of young managers. “With age, people are better able to handle stress or mistreatment without passing it down,” he says.

1. What’s the traffic like?

There are over 20,000 new domain registrations a day. In June, 2001, there were over 22.7 million .com domains. You do the math.

1. Are you getting emails with strange extensions?

Start getting familiar with the extensions: ca=Canada, au=Australia, sp=spain, mx=mexico, nz=New Zealand, ar=Argentina, as=American Samoa. I send all my subscribers a personal welcoming note, and it’s good to know what country they’re from. Here’s a list of foreign extensions all over the world: http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html .

Not all Easter bunnies like to put on their bonnets and join the Easter parade! Some 10% of us are introverts, and holidays can be stressful — the family get-together for Easter, then those spring outings at work — here come the golf tournaments, softball games, picnics, and if you live in San Antonio, TX, Fiesta time! What’s a shy bunny to do?

In recent years intuition has emerged from obscurity, even suspicion, to be honored as the valuable life tool that it is.

A recent study by Pfeffer and Sutton, presented in their book, “The Knowing-Doing Gap,” found that when 1,000 employees in business, government, and non-profit organizations were surveyed, it turned out that most workplace learning goes on “unbudgeted, unplanned and uncaptured by the organization.”

Interpersonal communication and other so-called soft skills are what corporate recruiters crave most but find most elusive in M.B.A. graduates. “The major business schools produce graduates with analytical horsepower and solid command of the basics — finance, marketing and strategy. But soft skills such as communication, leadership and a team mentality sometimes receive cursory treatment.” (WSJ)

You get through college with IQ, but you get through life with EQ-emotional intelligence. 80% of the qualities that lead to success are “soft”skills, EQ. People with high EQ experience less stress, enjoy better health, demonstrate higher levels of morale and performance, and report a better quality of life. It’s competencies like resilience, optimism, intentionality, and empathy. It’s applicable to team work, leadership, motivation, negotiation, ethics, and sales. EQ isn’t new, but full recognition of its value is.